strength training/bodyfat

[The Showcase]

hey guys i am quite new to the MMA style side of training and was just wanting some advice, i train at the gym about 4 days a week as well as the MMA classes but feel i am getting outstrengthed a lot sometimes even by some guys that are quite a bit lighter than me i am currently at 90kgs and when the time was right would like to compete at 84kgs. My bodyfat is also quite high at about 22% so would like to cut that down considerably. So if anyone can help with ways i can vastly improve my strength and good ways to cut some excess fat at the same time will be a great help

cheers guys

[KidKimura]

What kind of training are you doing at the gym? There are lots of different ways to go strength training wise, it all depends on what your doing right now. Cardio wise I would suggest as well as doing general stuff do some sprints as well, interval training is arguably the most important kind of cardio for fighting. And remember, the more muscle you have the quicker you burn calories!
Where abouts do you train by the way?

[MikeyL]

are you after explosive strenghth, endurance strengh?

are you just being over powered or are you gassing?

[Sports-Select.co.uk]

Post up your current gym routine and diet.

[Yetiman]

I must admit, I liked the 5x5 routine on a simple, push,pull,legs day - found for me that works my strength wonders!

[MikeyL]

How many times a week are you using the 5x5?

[Yetiman]

How many times a week are you using the 5x5?

My self mate I used it 3 times a week, doing Push/Pull/Legs day, I found it worked really well.

[MikeyL]

looking for a good full body for strength in the new year

[Yetiman]

looking for a good full body for strength in the new year

This is by a guy called Tall(TH&S) so I take no credit for it, but this seems to be good for strength/size


Yo. I knocked this up for Cap, it might be of some use to other trainers who have done the 5x5 Abbreviated training "thing" and are looking for another routine. If you are not a beginner, but you don't consider yourself to be an intermediate lifter yet then this might just be for you.

It still needs some tweaking.

It's thoughts are based on a routine Cookie had me on (which added 50kg+ to my deadlift) with a little bit of Westside thoughts in there, and some old skool 20 rep work.

The Workout

Keys:
ME = Max Effort.
DE = Dynamic Effort.

Max Effort you need to be putting everything you have into the exercise using a heavy a weight as possible.
Dynamic Effort you want to use about 60% of your max, for pressing movements for focus is on explosive power, for contracting movements the focus is on good form and full contraction. During your DE movements you will want to use the time to almost catch your breath for the ME movements.

Monday:
20 Rep (Rest Pause) Squats (ME)
DB Chest Movement: (DB Bench / DB Incline Bench, DB Press Flies, CGDBP) - Warmup + 2x10 (DE)
Rowing Movement: (DB Rows / BB Rows / Seated Machine Rows) Warmup + 2x10 (DE)
Vertical Pressing Movement (DB Shoulder Press, BB Mili Press, BB Push Press, BTNP) Warmup + 3x3 (ME)
Hamstring Movement (SLDL, Good Morning, GHR, Ham Curls, Pull throughs) 3x15 (DE)
Long Head Triceps Movement (Seated Cable Triceps Extension, DB Triceps Extension) 2x10-15 (DE)
Heavy Biceps Movement (BB Curls, Bruch Curls) 3x10 (ME)

Wednesday
20 Rep (Rest Pause) Deadlifts (ME)
Barbell Chest Movement (Flat Bench / Incline Bench / CGBP) Warmup + 3x3 or 5x5 (ME)
Vertical Pulling Movement (Chins / Weighted Chins / Lat Pulldown) (DE) 2x10
Vertical Pressing Movement (DB Shoulder Press, BB Mili Press, BB Push Press) 2x10 (DE)
Quadriceps Movement (DB Lunges / BB Lunges / Front Squats / Leg Extensions) 30 Reps Rest Pause (DE)
Triceps Movement (Dips / Weighed Dips / Pushdowns / Skull Crushers) 2x10 (DE)
Biceps Movement (BB 21s / Hammer Curls / Incline Curls) (DE)

Friday
10x2 Box Squats to Bench / 10x2 ATG Squats (DE)
Chest/Triceps Movement (Dips / Weighted Dips / GCBP) 5x5 (DE)
Back/Biceps Movement (Hammer Grip Chins / Close Grip Pulldowns) 5x5 (DE)
Vertical Pressing Movement (DB Shoulder Press, BB Mili Press, BB Push Press, BTNP) 2x10 (DE)

Progression: Increase the weight on each exercise each week. Change the exercise when you plateau on an exercise.

Periodisation: Either on the 4th/5th/6th week take a week where you do maybe 50% of what you normally would weight wise as your deload week.

After each workout do a 4minute session of Tabatas (Rowing / Overhead Press Squats / Burpee Chins)

Of your 4 non-training days, 2 of them you should do nothing, no cardio, no training. The other two do active recovery - pull a bird and go for a walk down by the park/canal/river or whatever. Play some football. Go for a bike ride.

Change the workout days you suit you. Fridays workout volume is dropped. I can lift heavy of an evening, but weekends I'm much better at doing DE work as I train around lunch time so my BGL is different. It also gives you enough of a workout without hammering you for the next workout.

Stimulation not anihalation is the name of the game.

The Explanation

It's a 3 day full body routine. You cannot go heavy all of the time - but most people need to be training heavy for as much of the time as possible.

When training heavy you need to be able to power that weight up, so as well as training heavy you need to train the speed of your movements to break through any sticking points.

Each day has a "full body" hip dominant movement in the form of Deads or Squats.
Each day has a chest movement, a back movement (either a horizontal pulling movement or a vertical pulling movement, a shoulder movement, a leg movement (Hams or Quads) and some exercises to work the Bis and Tris.

Each day you are working the whole body as a unit and over the whole week you are looking to hit it from all the angles.

Now this isn't a routine that will suit everyone. But for someone who is past the beginner stage and is looking to add mass then I would say it's fairly sound - no routine after all is perfect.

On each day you are looking to hit certain areas of the body, some times heavy, sometimes more for reps, and in order to try and avoid stagnation/plateaus you have a selection of exercises to choose from.

So when you stall on one exercise you know that you just need to switch exercises and keep making progress. The goal after all is to get bigger and stronger.

Utilising the template you might start like this:

Monday:
20 Rep (Rest Pause) Squats (ME)
DB Chest Movement: DB Bench - Warmup + 2x10 (DE)
Rowing Movement: DB Rows - Warmup + 2x10 (DE)
Vertical Pressing Movement: DB Shoulder Press - Warmup + 3x3 (ME)
Hamstring Movement: SLDL - 3x15 (DE)
Long Head Triceps Movement: DB Triceps Extension 2x10-15 (DE)
Heavy Biceps Movement: BB Curls - 3x10 (ME)

But you might find that after 4 weeks you can't make progress on DB Shoulder Press anymore, so you decide to switch to BB Push Press to keep making progress.

Because you are using a full range of motion on you DB Bench your Pec strength improves, but you find you are struggling to improve your BB Flat Bench as you are struggling at lockout.

So on Wednesday you switch BB Flat Bench to CGBP and change your Triceps movement from Pushdowns to Dips in order to work your Triceps harder, and as a result improve your bench press lockout.

After a few weeks you stop making progress on CGBP, move back to Flat Bench and find that you are able to continue progressing as you have corrected the weakness.

[MikeyL]

cheers mate

[ChokeYouOut]

Hey man,

i used to go to the gym 4/5 times a week. During that time i used to do MMA maybe once a fortnight or something.

After a while, i wanted to take MMA seriously as well as my bodybuilding. I kept going to gym 5 times a week, but also did intense thai boxing and mma sessions most days.

I was overtraining man... the isolation movements that i did at the gym tired each muscle out completely, and getting armbarred and shit the next day didnt really help my recovery.

I want to take both seriously, but it just aint happening. Delete all isolation movements from your gym workouts... no more concentration curls, tricep extensions, e.t.c.



Start doing more compound excersises: bench press, pullups, deadlift, squats, press ups, rows. You'll still get big, but won't tire out each muscle as much, as more than 1 muscle is being used in each of these workouts, unlike isolation movements.

Just go for 1 or 2 hard gym sessions a week. Less is more



And fat loss, i have quite a low body fat (12%) but personally i would only cut when training for a fight and making weight. Treadmill for 20 mins at a slow pace AFTER a weights sesh. If you do it before, your only going to tire yourself out and it wont do much as your not in the "fat loss zone"


Hope this helps